Land deals emerged as a major factor in Dubai’s real estate market in the first quarter, recording a 193.8 per cent jump in plot sales worth Dh35.5 billion from 2,926 transactions.
Dubai’s real estate market has continued its buoyant start to 2025, recording total sales worth Dh142.7 billion in Q1, the second highest quarterly figure on record.
This represented a 30.3 per cent year-on-year leap in value, while the 45,485 overall sales transactions also meant a 22.8 per cent year-on-year increase.
A market update issued on Thursday by fäm Properties revealed that the Q1 results were only fractionally down on the all-time quarterly sales record of Dh147.2 billion from 50,218 transactions in Q4 2024.
Data from DXBinteract shows villa sales were up by 43.1 per cent year-on-year to Dh41.3 billion from 8,369 deals, while apartment sales rose by 12.6 per cent to Dh62.3 billion from 32,884 transactions. Commercial sales were also up by 25.2 per cent to Dh3.6 billion from 1,212 deals.
Rising property values in recent years were highlighted by a Q1 median price of Dh1,563 per sq ft, compared with the Q1 rates of Dh889 in 2021, Dh1,124 in 2022, Dh1,283 in 2023 and Dh1,497 last year.
The rise in land deals underscores the shrinking size of the availability of land in the emirate, experts say. “The reality is that plots for real estate development in Dubai are increasingly difficult to find, and this has led to land prices in the city soaring in recent years. Compared with COVID times, land prices have increased three or even four times in some areas, driven also by the exceptionally high demand we’re witnessing today in off-plan sales. Obviously, off-plan sales are carried out by real estate development companies, which cannot exist without land to develop. Hence, there is fierce competition among these developers to acquire land, making it a key factor in driving land prices higher,” said Firas Al Msaddi, CEO of fäm Properties.
“The only scenario in which we will see land prices falling or stabilizing would be if the off-plan real estate market starts to decline. Any slowdown in off-plan prices would have an immediate impact on land prices in Dubai,” he added.
Dubai’s Q1 property sales over the last five years have now risen to the current level from Dh21 billion (9,800 transactions) in 2020 to Dh24.6 billion (11,600) in 2021, Dh54.6 billion (20,200) in 2022, Dh89 billion (31,100) in 2023 and Dh109.5 billion (37,000) last year.
